Michelle Dowd, author of the new boo "Forager---Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult: a Memoir" joins the podcast to talk about her amazing journey.  About Michelle:  As a child, Michelle Dowd grew up on a mountain in the Angeles National Forest. She was born into an ultra-religious cult—or the Field as they called it—started in the 1930s by her grandfather, a mercurial, domineering, and charismatic man who convinced generations of young male followers that he would live 500 years and ascend to the heavens when doomsday came. Comfort and care are sins, Michelle is told. As a result, she was forced to learn the skills necessary to battle hunger, thirst, and cold; she learned to trust animals more than humans; and most importantly, she learned how to survive in the natural world.

At the Field, a young Michelle lives a life of abuse, poverty, and isolation, as she obeys her family’s rigorous religious and patriarchal rules—which are so extreme that Michelle is convinced her mother would sacrifice her, like Abraham and Isaac, if instructed by God. She often wears the same clothes for months at a time; she is often ill and always hungry for both love and food. She is taught not to trust Outsiders, and especially not Quitters, nor her own body and its warnings.

But as Michelle gets older, she realizes she has the strength to break free. Focus on what will sustain, not satiate you, she tells herself. Use everything. Waste nothing. Get to know the intricacies of the land, like the intricacies of your body. And so she does.

Using stories of individual edible plants and their uses to anchor each chapter, Forager is both a searing coming-of-age story and a meditation on the ways in which understanding nature can lead to freedom, even joy.

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Chris Joseph is a dad, environmental consultant, cancer patient advocate, best selling author, thought leader, public speaker, and founder of two music record companies and a complementary 501(c)(3) non-profit helping New Orleans artists and musicians. He's also a television producer, hobbyist songwriter, podcaster, and a lover of all things outdoors. Over the decades, Chris has served as a board of director for numerous non-profit organizations, and is currently a national board member of NatureBridge.

Chris’s first book was the best seller “Life is a Ride: My Unconventional Journey of Cancer Recovery” (2020). He then co-authored "The Epiphanies Project" and is currently finalizing his third book, “The Kitchen Sink Approach to Cancer (And Why You SHOULDN'T Always Listen to Your Doctor)”.

For more information about Chris Joseph, please see the following websites:

https://my.terrain.network/profile/member/841?tab=overview-tab

lifeisaridebook.com

terrainnavigators.com

and at chrisjoseph AT mac DOT com